Always an Eagle
Dr. Jim Haines
Through his Lens
Dr. Jim Haines looks back on the schools, people, and community that shaped him
For Dr. Jim Haines, looking back at Zionsville Community Schools means seeing much more than the schools he attended. He sees teachers who became lifelong friends, teammates and classmates who remain part of his life, a community where he returned to build his career, and generations of his own family who have walked the same halls.
Today, the longtime Zionsville eye doctor has a unique view of a community he has watched grow and change across decades. Yet through his lens, some of the most important things have remained very clear.
“I think the school and community are intertwined,” Dr. Haines said. “I think they fuel each other. The school and the community together work. I think there’s a strong bond there.”
In this Always an Eagle conversation, Dr. Haines looks back at the people who shaped him, the community he chose to serve, and the generations of Eagles who continue his family’s Zionsville story.
Watch this video conversation with Dr. Jim Haines
Generations of Eagles
For Dr. Jim Haines, the connection to Zionsville Community Schools stretches from his own childhood to his children, grandchildren, and a lifetime of serving the community he calls home.
When Dr. Jim Haines looks back on his years in Zionsville Community Schools, the memories come easily.
There were classrooms and teachers. Basketball practices and baseball games, and friends who remained friends long after graduation. There was Coach Maguire, who became a longtime friend and someone Haines would later join for trips to Wrigley Field and basketball games downtown. There was Sam Fix, his eighth-grade basketball coach, and Orlin Coleman, his JV coach, who remains his friend well into his 90s. He remembers algebra teacher Jack Ferguson and English and Latin teacher Dorothy Roby.
“Those were some important people, you know, growing up and being a student here,” Dr. Haines said.
Decades later, those relationships remain part of the way Dr. Haines sees his school experience. The buildings have changed. The community has grown. But for Dr. Haines, the foundation has lasted.
“I look back with no regrets about my time here, and I just feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to come here.”
A Family Finds Zionsville
Dr. Haines' Zionsville story began when his family moved from Speedway just before the start of a new school year.
The move was memorable. Speedway had just built a new fancy high school. Dr. Haines remembers his father driving the family's station wagon down Fifth Street in Zionsville and his brother seeing the older brick high school for the first time. It was eye-opening.
But the family quickly found its place.
“We all assimilated,” Dr. Haines said. “All five kids in my family graduated Zionsville Community High School. They were all honor students. But yeah, it shaped all of us.”
Dr. Haines embraced every opportunity. He was a class officer, played basketball and baseball, and ran track his senior year. Just as important were the friendships formed along the way.
“I still have friends to this day that were good friends in high school,” he said. “We stayed connected. Though some live out of state, far away, we try to get together when we can. It shaped all of us.”
Coming Home
Eventually, the child who grew up in Zionsville had the opportunity to return not simply as an alumnus of ZCS, but as a professional and community member.
Dr. Haines built his eye care practice in Zionsville, serving families in the same community that had shaped him.
“It’s been the greatest thing,” he said. “I just feel so fortunate because I don’t know a lot of people that have had that opportunity.”
He is quick to acknowledge that building a career and business did not come easily. There were years of working six days a week, covering other practices, constructing a building, and worrying about bills and how to make ends meet.
“But it’s all been worthwhile,” Dr. Haines said. “Just to have a chance to come back to the community and practice here and have my career here has been really awesome.”
Perhaps one of the greatest rewards has been found on the other side of the exam room.
Some of the people Haines sees as patients today are people he knew when he was growing up. Others represent another generation of families he has known for years.
“To get to see patients now that were either adults or contemporaries of mine back when I grew up here, that’s been really neat,” he said, “to stay connected through the generations.”
That connection extends beyond his practice.
Dr. Haines has spent years investing in the community through organizations including the Boys and Girls Club, Optimist Club, and Alumni Association.
“I’ve always been a proponent of, you know, getting involved, rolling up your sleeves and doing things to help people or the community,” he said.
Schools and Community, Intertwined
Ask Dr. Haines about the relationship between Zionsville Community Schools and the larger community, and his answer is simple: They belong together.
“I think the school and community are intertwined,” he said. “I think they fuel each other. The school and the community together work. I think there’s a strong bond there.”
He has watched the community grow and change, particularly over the past 25 years, but he sees traditions that continue to connect people across generations.
He points to events such as EagleFest and homecoming, experiences he has encouraged new families to embrace.
“I think there’s a lot of nice traditions that have sustained themselves through the decades,” Dr. Haines said. “So I think that’s cool.”
And when new families find their way into his office, he often has a message for them.
“I get a chance to do this a lot when I’m in the office seeing patients,” he said. “I may get a kid and his parents that have just moved here and I say, 'Hey, congratulations. You picked the best community, the best school you could have picked.'”
The Next Generation
Today, Dr. Haines gets to experience Zionsville Community Schools from another perspective.
Dr. Haines and his wife have two granddaughters who are Zionsville middle school students. Both are involved in music, one playing clarinet and the other viola. They attend their events, adding another layer to a school story that has stretched across much of his life.
“I just look around the room,” he said. “I see parents and grandparents there that I think feel really proud.”
Then the memories and generations catch up with him.
“I get a little bit emotional sometimes.”
The family connection possibly reaches even further back. Dr. Haines is researching whether two of his grandparents, who grew up in northeastern Boone County near Big Springs, might have attended Zionsville Community Schools sometime around 1910. If confirmed, the family's connection to the schools would stretch across yet another generation.
Building Connections Beyond Graduation
Dr. Haines has also worked intentionally to keep Eagles connected long after they leave Zionsville.
In 2005, following what he recalls as the first all-class Zionsville Community Schools alumni reunion, Dr. Haines helped establish the Zionsville Alumni Association.
The reunion brought together approximately 1,200 people, from alumni in their early 20s to graduates in their 90s. Some of the oldest attendees graduated in the 1930s.
“They had their own little tables set aside, just talked all night,” Dr. Haines recalled.
In fact, when organizers tried to close the event at midnight, there was a problem.
“We couldn’t get them to leave.”
For Haines, seeing those connections continue has been part of the joy.
“That’s been a lot of fun,” he said, “and seeing the alumni association continue to prosper and grow has been nice.”
Look Around While You're Here
After decades of looking back, Dr. Haines has some advice for the students walking the hallways in Zionsville Community Schools today: Don't spend all of your time thinking about what's next.
“I hope they pause at some point to think about where they are and their life while they’re here, and not always looking ahead at what’s next,” Dr. Haines said, “because someday they’ll look back like I have on the wonderful memories and the friendships that all occurred while they were here.”
He encourages students to apply themselves, but also to experience the many opportunities surrounding them.
“Get involved in something, whether it be music or athletics or club activities,” he said.
It is advice born of experience.
Dr. Haines has watched Zionsville change from the small town of his childhood to the flourishing community it is today. He has been a student, athlete, alumnus, parent, grandparent, business owner, volunteer, and community leader.
Through every chapter, the connection has remained.
“I feel very lucky, very, very blessed to be part of the schools and part of the Zionsville community, part of the Alumni Association.”
More than five decades after his own days in the classroom, Dr. Haines can still see clearly what those years gave him: friendships, opportunity, memories, a place to build a career, and a community where generations of his family have found their own stories.
And through his lens, school and community remain exactly what they have always been: intertwined.
Always an Eagle.
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